The plain, banded surfaces recall the work of an artillery foundry, and the abstracted forms of the dragon heads recall Giambologna's repertory of ornamental monsters on fountain spouts, the mortar might have been produced around 1600 by Cosimo Cenni, the Medicean artillery foundryman. It is similar in its simple and elegant profile to a larger one in the Collection of Mrs. Rush H. Kress, New York.